Yes, it's true... I'm leaving AOL. — TechCrunch broke the story (less than two hours after I told everyone here), and the New York Times confirmed it with me by phone this afternoon. — I've got a lot to say, but I'm thinking that I'll just talk about it on the final episode of the Gillmor Gang podcast …

Yahoo Buys Site for Staging Online Contests — Yahoo is acquiring Bix.com, a site that allows users and advertisers to create, enter into and judge online contests. The deal is an attempt by Yahoo to bolster its offerings in social media, an area where it has struggled to compete with sites like MySpace and YouTube.

Bix joins Yahoo!'s social media mix — The social media phenomenon is fed by human needs for self-expression, feedback, generosity, and, to some degree, good old-fashioned voyeurism. Today, we add more food to Yahoo!'s social media menu: Bix, a budding social media service that almost anyone …

Ross Levinsohn Leaves Fox Interactive — We just got a press release from Fox Interactive which says that Peter Levinsohn is the new president of Fox Interactive. FIM insiders tell us that Levinsohn has often described the current changes in the media landscape as a "once in a lifetime opportunity."

Skype soft-launches Skype for Symbian — Runs on the Nokia N73 — OBSCURED BY all the razzmatazz surrounding the launch of 3's X-Series handsets, is the fact that on December 1st when 3 goes live with its new service, there will be a version of Skype for Symbian.

Movie Studios Sue to Stop Loading of DVDs onto iPods — The MPAA studios are at it again, snatching away our fair use rights, so they can sell them back to us for an "additional fee." — In a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, Paramount Pictures v. Load 'N Go Video …

CSIRO wins landmark legal battle — The CSIRO has won a landmark US legal battle against Buffalo Technology, under which it could receive royalties from every producer of wireless local area network (WLAN) products worldwide. — The CSIRO brought the case against Buffalo before the US Federal Court …

New Beta Build Available! (Build # 1172) — It's been just about 6 weeks since our last update. During that time, we've been collecting and reviewing feedback from our customers, and working on getting some of those issues that you've been sending in fixed for the new Beta build …

SiteMaps Explained — By now, you've probably seen the news splashed all over Techmeme about the decision by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! to support SiteMaps. In case you haven't, you can check out these articles: — Microsoft's Live Search Blog — Yahoo!'s Search Blog — Search Engine Watch

Let's Get This Party Started! — The TechCrunch New York Party kicks off in three hours, 7 PM EST, at BED in Manhattan. — The final guest list is here, although it doesn't include sponsor attendees and press. All attendees should have received an email confirmation of the party as well.

Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land Launches December 11 — Search Engine Land is a new search news blog launching December 11, 2006. Danny Sullivan, along with Chris Sherman and Barry Schwartz, will be providing information about search engine marketing and how search engines work in general, from a searcher's perspective.

Skype PR WakeUp Call II: The Solution — This is the second of three posts discussing Skype's PR management with the aim of improving the PR relationships associated with the launch of new Skype software and associated services. In the first post I outlined the problem …

The S stands for Simple — There has been a long running debate in the Application Platform Services Group here at Burton Group between the REST people on one side and the SOAP people on the other. For the most part it mirrors the external debate. In one recent exchange …